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INCENTIVES  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PERIOD 
OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


AN   ADDRESS, 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


NEW    YORK    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY, 


AT   ITS   FORTY-SECOND   ANNIVERSARY,  17tH  NOVEMBER,    1846. 


'■^ 


HENRY   R., SCHOOLCRAFT 


PUBLISHED   AT   THE  REQUEST   OF   THE   SOCIETY. 


NEW  YORK: 
PRESS    OF    THE    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

1847. 


FRED  LOCKLEY 

RARE  WESTERN  BOOKS 


EU 

£3% 


.  -  ,  NSW  yORtC:  i 

WILLI  A  M     V  an"   NORDEN,     ie  R  I  N  T 
NO.     39     WILLIAM     STREET. 


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NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


At  a  special  meeting  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  November  17th,  1846, 
being  the  Forty-Second  Anniversary  of  the  Society,  Hon.  Luther  Bradish 
in  the  Chair,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Philip  Hone,  it  v^^as  unanimously 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  are  due  to  Mr.  Henry  R.  School- 
CKAFT,  for  his  learned  and  interesting  Address,  delivered  this  evening,  and  that  a 
copy  be  respectfully  requested  to  be  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  Society,  and 
published. 

Extract  from  the  Minutes, 


ANDREW  WARNER, 

Recording  Secretary. 


95Si6^ 


AN  ADDRESS 


To  narrow  the  boundaries  of  historical  mystery,  which 
obscures  the  early  period  of  the  American  continent,  is 
believed  to  be  an  object  of  noble  attainment.  Can  it  be 
asserted,  on  the  ground  of  accurate  inquiry,  that  man  had 
not  set  his  feet  upon  this  continent,  and  fabricated  objects 
of  art,  long  anterior  to  the  utmost  periods  of  the  monarchies 
of  ancient  Mexico  and  Peru  ?  Were  there  not  elements  of 
civilization  prior  to  the  landing  of  Coxcox,  or  the  promul- 
gation of  the  gorgeous  fiction  of  Manco  Capac  ?  What 
chain  of  connection  existed  between  the  types  of  pseudo- 
civilization  found  respectively  at  Cuzco,  west  of  the  Andes, 
and  in  the  valley  of  Anahuac  ?  Did  this  chain  ever  link  in 
its  causes  the  pyramids  of  Mexico  with  the  mounds  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  ?  It  is  not  proposed  to  enter  into  the  de- 
tails of  this  discussion.  Such  an  inquiry  would  far  transcend 
the  limits  before  me.  It  is  rather  designed  to  show  the  ampli- 
tude of  the  field  as  a  subject  of  historical  inquiry,  than  to 
gather  its  fruits.  It  will  entirely  compass  the  object  I  have 
in  view,  if  the  suggestions  I  am  to  make  shall  have  the  ten- 
dency, in  any  degree,  to  draw  attention  to  the  topic,  and  to 
denote  the  strong  incentives  which  exist,  at  the  present 
time,  to  study  this  ancient  period  of  American  history. 
This  is  the  object  contemplated. 

Nations,  in  their  separation  from  their  original  stocks, 
and  dispersion  over  the  globe,  are  yet  held  together  by  the 

leading  traits,  physical  and  intellectual,  which  had  charac- 

1# 


6  INCENTIVES    TO    TIIE    STUDY    OF 

terized  them  as  groups.  And  in  spreading  abroad,  tliey 
are  found  to  have  left  behind  them  a  golden  clue,  which  we 
recognize  in  physiology,  languages,  arts,  monuments,  and 
mental  habitudes.  These  traits  are  so  intimately  interwov- 
en in  the  w^oof  of  the  mind,  and  so  firmly  interlaced  in  the 
structure  and  tendencies  to  action  of  the  whole  organiza- 
tion of  the  man,  that  they  can  be  detected  and  generalized 
after  long  eras  of  separation,  and  the  most  severe  mutations 
of  history.  Such  is  the  judgment,  at  least,  of  modern  re- 
search. Ethnology  bases  its  claims  to  confidence  in  the 
recognition  of  the  dispersed  family  of  man,  in  these  proofs. 
And  when  they  have  been  eliminated  from  the  dust  of  an- 
tiquity, they  are  offered  as  contributions  to  the  body  of  well 
considered  facts  and  inferences,  which  are  to  compose  the 
thread  of  antique  history  and  critical  inquiry. 

And  what,  it  may  be  inquired,  are  the  evidences  the 
study  produces,  when  these  means  of  scrutiny  come  to  be 
applied  to  the  existing  red  race  of  this  continent  ?  or  to 
their  predecessors  in  its  occupancy  ?  Do  their  languages 
tell  the  story  of  their  ancient  affinities  with  Asia,  Africa,  or 
Europe  ?  Do  we  see,  in  their  monuments  and  remains  of 
art,  increments  of  a  pre-existing  state  of  advance,  or  refine- 
ment, in  the  human  family,  in  other  parts  of  the  globe  ? 
It  is  confessed,  that  in  order  to  answer  these  enquiries,  we 
must  first  scrutinize  the  several  epochs  of  the  nations  with 
whom  we  are  to  compare  them,  and  the  changes  which 
they  themselves  have  undergone.  Without  erecting  these 
several  standards  of  comparison,  no  certainty  can  attend 
the  labor.  All  nations  and  tribes  upon  the  face  of  the  globe, 
whom  we  can  make  sponsors  for  the  American  tribes,  are 
thus  constituted  the  field  of  study,  and  we  have  opened  to 
our  investigations  a  theme  at  once  noble  and  sublime.  Phi- 
losophy has  no  higher  species  of  inquiry,  beneath  Infinitude, 
than  that  w^hich  establishes  the  original  affinities  of  man 
to  man. 

We  perceive,  in  casting  our  minds  back  on  the  track  of 
nations  from  whom  we  are  ourselves  sprung,  a  strong  and 
clear  chain  of  philological  testimony,  running  through  the 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  7 

various  nations  of  the  great  Thiudic*  type,  until  it  termi- 
nates in  the  utmost  regions  of  the  north.  This  chain  of 
affiliation,  though  it  had  a  totally  diverse  element  in  the 
Celtic,  to  begin  with,  yet  absorbed  that  element,  without  in 
the  least  destroying  the  connection.  It  runs  clearly  from 
the  Anglo  Saxon  to  the  Frisic,  or  northern  Dutch,  and  the 
Germanic,  in  all  its  recondite  phases,  with  the  ancient 
Gothic,  and  its  cognates,  taking  in  very  wide  accessions 
from  the  Latin,  the  Gallic,  and  other  languages  of  south- 
ern Europe  ;  and  it  may  be  traced  back,  historically, 
till  it  quite  penetrates  through  these  elementary  masses  of 
change,  and  reveals  itself  in  the  Icelandic.  Two  thousand 
five  hundred  years,  assuming  no  longer  period,  have  not 
obliterated  these  affinities  of  language.  Even  at  this  day, 
the  Anglo  Saxon  numerals,  pronouns,  most  of  the  terms  in 
chronology,  together  with  a  large  number  of  its  adverbs, 
are  well  preserved  in  the  Icelandic.  And  had  we  no  histo- 
ry to  trace  our  national  origin,  the  body  of  philological 
testimony,  which  can  be  appealed  to,  w^ould  be  conclusive 
of  the  general  question. 

Does  Asia  offer  similar  proofs  of  the  original  identity,  or 
parentage  of  its  languages  with  America  ?  This  cannot 
be  positively  asserted.  But  while  there  is  but  little  analo- 
gy in  the  sounds  of  the  lexicography,  so  far  as  known,  it  is 
in  this  quarter  of  the  globe,  that  we  perceive  resemblances 
in  some  words  of  the  Shemitic  group  of  languages,  positive 
coincidences  in  the  features  of  its  syntax,  and  in  its  un- 
wieldy personal  and  polysyllabical  and  aggregated  forms  ; 
and  the  inquiry  is  one,  which  may  be  expected  to  produce 
auspicious  results.  On  the  assumption  of  their  Asiatic 
origin,  therefore,  it  is  evident  that  the  Indian  tribes  are  of 
far  greater  antiquity  than  the  Anglo  Saxon.  Not  only  so, 
but  they  appear  on  philological  proofs  to  be  older,  in  their 
national  phasis,  if  we  except,  perhaps,  the  Chinese,  than 
the  present  inhabitants  of  the  north-eastern  coasts  of  Asia, 
and  the  East  India  Islands.     But  we  are  not  to  pursue  this 

*  Forster. 


O  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OP 

topic.     The  general  facts  are  merely  thrown  out,  to  denote 
the  far  reaching  and  imperious  requirements  of  philology. 

When  we  examine  the  American  continent,  with  a  view 
to  its  ancient  occupancy,  we  perceive  its  surface  scarified 
with  moats  and  walls — its  alluvial  level  plains  and  vallies 
bearing  mounds,  teocalli  and  pyramids.  Its  high  interior 
altitudes,  in  the  tropical  regions,  are  covered  with  the  ruins 
of  temples  and  cities — and  even  in  the  temperate  latitudes 
of  the  north,  its  barrows  and  mounds  are  now  found  to 
yield  objects  of  exquisite  sculpture,  and  many  of  its  forests, 
beyond  the  Alleghanies,  exhibit  the  regularity  of  antique 
garden  beds  and  furrows,*  amid  the  heaviest  forest  trees. 
Objects  of  art  and  implements  of  war,  and  even  of  science, 
are  turned  up  by  the  plough.  These  are  silent  witnesses. 
With  the  single  exception  of  the  inscription  stone,  found  in 
the  great  tumulus  of  Grave  Creek,  in  Virginia,  in  the  year 
1838,f  there  is  no  monument  of  art  on  the  continent,  yet 
discovered,  which  discloses  an  alphabet,  and  thus  promises 
to  address  posterity  in  an  articulate  voice.  We  must  argue 
chiefly  from  the  character  of  the  antique  works  of  art. 

But  although  the  apparent  hieroglyphics  of  Yucatan  and 
(Central  America  have  not  been  read,  nor  a  history  of  much 
incident,  or  a  remote  antiquity,  deduced  from  the  pictorial 
scrolls  of  Mexico,  it  is  impossible  not  to  assign  to  the  era  of 
American  antiquities,  a  degree  of  arts,  science,  agriculture 
and  general  civilization,  to  which  the  highest  existing  no- 
madic or  hunter  tribes  had  no  pretence.  It  is  a  period  of 
obscurity,  of  which  inquirers  might  perhaps  say,  that  the 
darkness  itself  is  made  to  speak.  It  tells  of  the  displace- 
ment of  light.  All  indeed  beyond  the  era  of  Columbus,  is 
shrouded  in  historical  gloom.  We  are  thus  confined  within 
the  short  cycle  of  some  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  A 
little  less  than  twelve  generations  of  men.  Beyond  this 
period,  we  have  an  ante-historical  period,  which  is  filled, 
almost  exclusively,  with  European  claimants  of  prior  dis- 


*  MSS.  of  the  Am.  Ethn.  Society.     Vide  Catalogue,  Vol.  I. 
t  Trans.  Am.  Ethn.  Society.     Vol.  I. 


ANCIENT   AMERICAN    HISTORY. 


covery.  We  will  name  them  in  their  order.  They  are  the 
Scandinavians,  the  Cimbri  and  tribes  of  Celtic  type,  and 
the  Venetians.  Still  prior,  is  the  Asiatic  claim  of  a  preda- 
tory nation,  who,  in  the  days  of  the  Exodus,  lived  in  caves 
and  dens  of  the  earth,  under  the  name  of  Horites,*  and  who 
culminated  at  a  later  era,  under  the  far-famed  epithet  of 
Phoenicians — a  people  whose  early  nautical  skill  has,  abso- 
lutely, no  cotemporary. 

Scandinavian    antiquities    have    recently   assumed   the 
highest  interest,  which  the  press  and  the  pencil  can  bestow. 
Danish  art  and  research  have  achieved  high  honors  in  disin- 
terring facts  from  the  dust  of  forgotten  ages.     And  we  may 
look  to  the  illustrated  publications,  which  have  been  put  forth 
at  Copenhagen,  under  royal  auspices,  as  an  example  of  what 
literary  costume  and  literary  diligence,  may  do  to  revive  and 
re-construct  the  antiquarian  periods  of  the  world's  history. 
The  publication  of   the  ancient  northern    Sagas,  and  the 
ballads  of  the  Scandinavian  Skalds,  has  revealed  sufficient 
of  the  history   of  the  early  and    bold    adventures,  in  the 
tenth,  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  to  show  that  these 
hardy  adventurers  not  only  searched  the  shores  of  Iceland 
and  Greenland,  and  founded  settlements  and  built  churches 
there  ;  but  pushed  their  voyages  west  to  the  rocky  shores 
of  Heluiland,  the  woody  coasts  of  Markland,  and  the  vine- 
yielding  coasts  of  ancient   Vinland.      These  three  names 
geography  has  exchanged  in  our  days,  for  Newfoundland, 
Nova  Scotia  and  Massachusetts.     Perhaps  some  other  por- 
tions of   New  England  may  be  embraced  by  the  ancient 
name  of  Vinland. 

The  ancient  songs  and  legends  uf  a  people  may  be  ap- 
pealed to,  as  these  Sagas  and  ballads  have  been,  for  historical 
proof,  as  it  is  known  that  the  early  nations  celebrated  their 
heroic  exploits,  in  this  manner.  Authors  tell  us  that  Homer 
but  recited  the  traditions  of  his  countrymen.  The  nautical 
and  geographical    proofs,  by  which  portions  of  the  North 


Forster. 


10  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

Atlantic  shores  have  been  identified  by  the  bold  spirit  of 
northern  research,  are  certainly  inexact  and  to  some  extent 
hypothetical.  In  extending  the  heretofore  admitted  points 
of  discovery  and  temporary  settlement,  south  to  Massachu- 
setts and  Rhode  Island,  they  carry  with  them  sufficient 
general  plausibility,  as  being  of  an  early  and  adventurous 
age,  to  secure  assent.  And  they  only  cease  to  inspire  a 
high  degree  of  historical  respect,  at  the  particular  points 
vi^here  the  identification  becomes  extreme,  where  the  pen 
and  pencil  have  to  some  extent  distorted  objects,  and  where 
localities  and  monuments  are  insisted  on,  which  we  are  by 
no  means  sure  ever  had  any  connection  with  the  acts  of  the 
early  Scandinavian  adventurers,  and  sea  kings.  This 
period  of  the  ante-Columbian  era,  is  one  of  deep  interest  in 
American  history,  and  invites  a  careful  and  candid  scrutiny, 
with  a  sole  eye  to  historical  truth. 

We  have  also  a  Celtic  period,  falling  within  the  same 
general  era  of  the  Scandinavian,  which,  at  least,  deserves 
to  be  examined,  if  it  be  only  to  clear  away  the  rubbish  that 
encumbers  the  threshold  of  the  ancient  period  of  our  Indian 
history.  This  claim  to  discovery,  rests  chiefly  upon  a  pas- 
sage in  old  British  history,  which  represents  two  voyages 
of  a  Welsh  Prince,  who  in  the  twelfth  century,  sailed  west 
from  the  coasts  of  Britain,  and  is  thought  by  some  writers, 
to  have  reached  this  continent.  The  discovery  of  Columbus 
was  of  such  an  astounding  character  and  reflected  so 
eminent  a  degree  of  honor,  both  on  him  and  the  Court 
which  had  employed  this  noble  mariner,  that  it  is  no  wonder 
other  countries  of  maritime  borders,  should  rake  up  the 
arcana  of  their  old  traditions,  to  share  in  the  glory.  If  these 
ancient  traditions  have  left  but  little  worthy  of  the  sober 
pen  of  history,  they  have  imposed  on  us,  as  cultivators  of 
history,  the  literary  obligation  to  examine  the  facts  and 
decide  upon  their  probability.  If  Prince  Madoc,  as  this 
account  asserts,  sailed  a  little  south  of  west,  he  is  likely  to 
have  reached  and  landed  at  the  Azores.  It  is  not  incredible, 
indeed,  that  small  ships,  such  as  the  Britons,  Danes  and 
Northmen  used,  should  have  crossed  the  entire  Atlantic  at 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY. 


11 


the  era,  between  the  vernal  and  autumnal  equinoxes, 
although  it  is  not  probable.  It  is  nearly  certain,  however, 
that  should  such  a  feat  have  been  performed  in  the  twelfth 
century,  the  natives  of  the  American  coasts,  who  were  in- 
imical to  strangers,  would,  in  no  long  period,  have  annihi- 
lated them.  With  a  full  knowledge  of  the  warlike  and 
suspicious  elements  of  Indian  character,  such  a  result  might 
have  been  predicted  in  ordinary  cases.  But  that  these 
tribes,  or  any  one  of  them,  should  have  adopted,  as  is 
contended,  the  language  of  a  small  and  feeble  colony  of 
foreigners,  either  landing  or  stranded  on  the  coast  ;  nay 
more,  so  fully  adopted  it  as  to  be  understood  by  any  coun- 
trymen of  the  Prince,  five  hundred  years  afterwards,*  is  a 
proof  of  the  national  credulity  of  men,  who  are  predetermined 
to  find  the  analogies  which  they  ardently  seek. 

Italy  has  likewise  a  claim  to  the  discovery  of  this  conti- 
nent, prior  to  the  voyages  of  Columbus.  This  claim  is 
made  by  an  ancient  family  of  the  highest  rank  in  the  city 
of  Venice — once  the  mistress  of  the  commerce  of  the  world. 
The  voyages  of  the  two  Zenos,  over  the  northern  seas,  in 
the  14th  century,  extending  to  Greenland,  appear  to  be  well 
attested  by  the  archives  of  that  ancient  city.  The  episode 
of  Estotiland,  which  is  apparently  used  as  a  synonyme  for 
Vinland,  has  been  generally  deemed  apocryphal,  or  of  a 
date  posterior  to  the  other  incidents  described.  To  examine 
and  set  in  order  both  the  true  and  the  intercalated  parts  of 
these  curious  ancient  voyages,  would  involve  no  little  de- 
gree of  research,  but  would  prove,  if  well  executed,  a  useful 
and  acceptable  service  to  historical  letters. 

There  is  another  period — we  allude  to  the  Horitic  ele- 
nient — in  the  obscurity  of  the  early  history  of  the  continent, 
which  may  be  here  mentioned,  but  from  the  diversity  of  the 
sub-elements  which  enter  into  it,  some  hesitancy  exists  in 
giving  it  a  name.  In  order  to  secure  the  purposes  of  gene- 
ralization, and  include  every  element  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed, it  may  be  called,  provisionally,  the  Mediterranean 

*Vide  Stoddart's  Louisiana. 


12  INCENTIVES  TO    THE    STUDY    OP 

PERIOD.  It  is  the  earliest  and  most  obscure  of  the  whole, 
relying,  as  it  does,  almost  exclusively  upon  passages  of  the 
imaginative  literature  of  Greece.  Yet  it  is  a  subject  emi- 
nently w^orthy  of  the  pen  of  original  investigation.  It 
includes  the  consideration  of  the  early  maritime  power 
of  the  Phoenicians,  the  Etruscans,  the  Carthagenians, 
and  other  celebrated  nations  and  cities  who,  long  before 
the  Christian  era,  drew  the  attention  and  governed 
the  destinies  of  the  world.  It  was  in  this  quarter  of 
the  globe,  forming,  as  it  does,  the  cementing  point  be- 
tween Europe  and  Asia,  that  an  alphabet  arose  at  a  very 
early  day,  and  prior  to  that  of  Greece  or  Rome,  which 
consisted  almost  exclusively  of  straight  or  angular  marks. 
From  its  use  it  has  sometimes  been  called  the  Rock  Alpha- 
bet. It  has  its  equivalents  in  the  more  full  and  exact  He- 
brew and  Greek  characters,  so  far  as  the  old  alphabet  ex- 
tended. It  had,  as  these  changes  progressed  and  the  family 
of  man  spread,  the  various  names  of  Phcenician,  Ostic,  Etrus- 
can, Punic,  ancient  Greek  and  Gallic,  Celtiberic,  Runic,  Dru- 
idical  and  others.  As  a  system  of  notation,  it  appears  to 
occupy  an  epoch  between  the  hieroglyphic  system  of  Egypt 
and  the  Greek  alphabet.  But  whatever  may  be  said  of  its 
origin,  affinities,  changes,  or  character,  it  is  clear  that  this 
simple  alphabet  spread  westward  among  the  barbaric  na- 
tions of  Europe,  changing,  in  some  measure,  in  its  forms  of 
notation  and  the  articulate  sounds  it  represented,  until  it 
reached  the  utmost  limits  of  its  western  and  northern  coasts 
and  islands.  Here  it  served  as  the  means  of  recording 
human  utterance,  until  it  was  supplanted  and  obliterated 
by  the  civilization  of  Rome  and  the  Roman  alphabet.  To 
decypher  the  ancient  inscriptions  in  this  simple  character, 
found  upon  rocks  and  monuments,  is  an  object,  at  this  day, 
of  learned  research  ;  and  its  importance  may  be  judged  of 
by  observing,  that,  whenever  successfully  effected,  it  is  a 
literal  restoration,  to  the  present  age,  of  the  lost  sounds  of 
those  parts  of  the  ancient  world.  I  will  no  farther  allude  to 
this  period,  so  important  in  its  means  of  research,  than  to 
add,  that  the  inscription,  found  in  1838,  on  opening  the 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  13 

gigantic  pile  of  earth,  or  tumulus,  heretofore  referred  to,  on 
the   alluvial  plains  of  Grave  Creek  in  Western  Virginia, 
was  in  one  of  the  types  of  this  ancient  character.     This 
type  of  the  alphabet  may  be  called  aonic* — a  term  derived 
from  the  aboriginal  vocabulary.     I  visited  the  locality  in 
1843 —carefully  examined  the  facts,  and  having  satisfied 
myself  of  the  authenticity  of  the  discovery,  took  duplicate 
copies  of  the  inscription  in  wax,  and  transmitted  them  to 
Europe.     The  inscription  consists  of  twenty-three  letters, 
together  with  a  pictorial  device,  apparently  a  man's  head 
on  a  pike.     It  is  made  on  a  small  hard  stone,  of  an  oval 
shape,  and.  was  found  in  a  vault  along  vt^ith  human  bones, 
sea  shells,  and  various  ornaments  of  a  rude  age.     Professor 
Charles  Rafn,  of  Copenhagen,  deems  the  character  Celti- 
beric.     I  have  recently  received  a  memoir  from  M.  Jomard, 
at  Paris,  (the  sole  survivor  of  Bonaparte's  scientific  corps 
in  Egypt,)  who  considers  it  as  of  Lybian  origin,  and  com- 
pares it  with  an  inscription  found  on  the  African  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean  at  Dugga.     It  relieves,  to  some  extent, 
the  discrepancy  existing  between  these  two  learned  men  to 
remark  that  the  Dugga  inscription  consists  of  two  parts, 
one  of  which  is  .pronounced  Celtiberic  by  Hamaker,  and 
that  the  generic  character  of  the  strokes  in  this  alphabet  are 
preserved  to  some  extent  even  in  the  true  Libyan.     Since 
the  receipt  of  Mr.  Rafn's  paper,  the  number  of  characters 
on  the  Grave  Creek  stone  which  are  identical  with  the  Cel- 
tiberic, as  published  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Transactions 
of  the  American  Ethnological  Society,  has  been  shown  to 
be  fifteen,  leaving  but  eight  to  be  accounted  for.     By  com- 
parison, ten  of  our  aonic  characters  of  Grave  Creek  corres- 
pond with  the  PhoBnician  ;  four  with  the   ancient  Greek  ; 
four  with  the  Etruscan  ;  six  with  the  ancient  Gallic  ;  seven 
with  the  old  Erse  ;  five  with  the  Runic  proper,  and  thirteen 
with  the  Druidical,  or  old  British,  as  it  existed  before  the 
invasion  of  Julius  Caesar.     The  latter  are,  however,  almost 
identical,  so  far  as  the  comparison  goes,  with  the  Celtiberic. 


Vide  Notes  on  the  Iroquois. 


\ 


14  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

Six  of  the  characters,  which  are  several  times  repeated, 
however,  exist  in  the  right  hand  portion  of  the  Lybian  in- 
scription at  Dugga,  but  the  introduction,  in  other  parts  of 
the  monumental  text,  of  the  Arabic  element  of  notation  by 
curved  lines,  tends  to  lessen  the  probability  of  the  Lybian 
origin  of  our  western  inscription,  while  it  adds  additional 
force  to  the  suggestions  of  Mr.  Rafn.  It  is  also  to  be  no- 
ticed that  M.  Jomard  employed  an  inaccurate  copy  of  the 
inscription  which  was  furnished  him  some  years  ago  by  Mr. 
Vail. 

This  comprehends  the  European  branch  of  the  obscure 
period  of  our  early  continental  history,  and  includes  all  the 
nations  known  to  have  put  in  claims  to  share,  or  to  antici- 
pate, the  glory  of  the  discovery  of  the  continent  by  Columbus. 

The  discovery  of  the  continent,  was,  indeed,  a  geographi- 
cal wonder.  It  was  made  contrary  to  the  predictions  of  the 
times.  Such  a  discovery  was  not  only  opposed  by  popular 
opinion ;  but  Columbus  himself  expected  no  such  thing.  He 
sought  only  a  new  passage  to  the  East  Indies.  He  insis- 
ted, with  a  noble  constancy,  that  he  should  find  land  in  sail- 
ing west.  But  he  did  not  expect  to  find,  as  if  by  the  power 
of  necromancy,  that  a  vast  continent  should  rise  up  before 
his  eyes.  And  it  is  altogether  questionable,  whether  the  great 
navigator  did  not  die  without  a  true  knowledge  of  this  fact. 
It  will  be  recollected  that  it  was  not  until  six  years  after 
his  death,  which  happened  in  1506,  that  Balboa  first  discover- 
ed the  Pacific  from  the  heights  of  Panama,  and  thus  truly 
revealed  the  position  of  the  Continent. 

Sages  and  Philosophers  do  not  admire  results  which 
have  fallen  out  contrary  to  their  expressed  views  ;  but,  in 
this  case,  the  discovery  proved  so  astounding  that  all  Europe 
joined  in  extolling,  what  all  Europe  had  a  little  before,,  dis- 
believed. A  continent  stretching  little  under  10,000  miles, 
from  south  to  north,  with  a  maximum  breath  of  2000  miles, 
between  sea  and  sea,  rivers,  such  as  the  La  Plata  and  the 
Amazon — mountains  like  that  of  the  Andes,  whose  highest 
peak  rises  20,280  feet  above  the  sea — Volcanoes,  which  cast 
their  fires  over  plains  of  interminable  extent — tropical  fruits 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  15 

of  every  kind— mines  of  gold  and  silver  the  richest  the 
world  had  ever  known — these,  were  some  of  the  features 
that  America  brought  to  light,  while  it  added  one-third  to 
the  known  area,  and  more  than  one-third  to  the  commercial 
resources  of  the  world. 

But  while  men  gazed  at  its  lofty  mountains,  and  geologi- 
cal magnificence,  the  ancient  race  of  men,  who  were  found 
here,  constituted  by  far  the  most  curious  and  thought-in- 
spiring problem.  Volcanoes  and  vast  plains  and  mountains 
were  elements  in  the  geography  of  the  old  world,  and  their 
occurrence  here,  soon  assimilated  their  discovery  to  other 
features  of  the  kind.  But  the  red  man  continued  to  furnish 
a  theme  for  speculation  and  inquiry,  which  time  has  not 
satisfied.  Columbus,  supposing  himself  to  have  found,  what 
he  had  sailed  for,  and  judging  from  physical  characteristics 
alone,  called  them  Indians.  Usage  has  perpetuated  the 
term.  But  if,  by  the  term,  it  is  designed  to  consider  them 
as  of  that  part  of  India,  which  is  filled  with  the  Hindoo 
race,  there  is  but  little  resemblance  beyond  mere  physical 
traits.  Of  the  leading  idea  of  the  multiform  incarnations 
of  the  terrible,  and  degraded  Hindoo  deities — of  the  burning 
of  widows  at  the  funereal  pile — of  infanticide — of  the  gross 
idolatry  rendered  to  images,  like  those  of  Vishnoo  and  Jug- 
gernaut, there  is  nothing.  The  degraded  forms  of  supersti- 
tion and  human  vice  which  are  practised  on  the  Ganges  and 
the  Burrampooter,  are  unknown  on  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Missouri.  Nor  have  we  found,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  a  sin- 
gle word  in  the  American  languages,  which  exists  in  the 
Hindostanee. 

The  philosophers  and  ecclesiastics  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, who  discussed  the  subject  of  the  origin  of  the  Amer- 
ican Tribes,  have  left  scarcely  a  portion  of  the  globe  un- 
touched by  their  researches,  or  from  which,  they  have  not 
attempted,  by  some  analogies,  to  deduce  them.  Generali- 
zation, as  soon  as  Columbus  returned  from  his  first  voyage, 
took  an  unlimited  latitude  ;  and  theories  were  advanced 
with  a  degree  of  confidence,  which  was,  in  some  measure, 
proportioned  to  the  remoteness  of  the  position  of  the  writers, 


16  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

from  both  the  stock  of  people  found,  and  those  of  nations 
with  whom  they  were  sought  to  be  compared.  Scholars 
ransacked  the  archives  of  European  archaeology.  They 
found  some  allusions  in  the  Greek  drama,  to  ancient  discov- 
eries beyond  the  pillars  of  Hercules.  They  speculated  on 
the  story  of  Atlantis,  and  the  Fortunate  Islands.  They 
drew  parallels  between  the  hunter  and  corn  planting  tribes 
of  America,  and  the  lost  ten  tribes  of  Israel,  who  were  gra- 
ziers. They  located  ancient  Ophir,  where  of  all  places  it 
had  certainly  never  been,  namely,  in  America.  They  were 
satisfied  with  general  resemblances  in  manners  and  customs, 
which  mark  uncivilized  nations,  in  distant  parts  of  the  world, 
who  assimilate,  in  some  traits,  from  mere  parity  of  circum- 
stances, but  between  whom  there  are  in  reality,  no  direct 
affinities  of  blood  and  lineage.  And  they  left  the  question, 
to  all  practical  and  satisfactory  ends,  precisely  where  they 
found  it.  It  was  still  to  be  answered,  who  are  the  Indians? 
The  present  age  is,  in  many  respects,  better  prepared  to 
undertake  the  examination  of  the  question.  The  time  which 
has  passed  away  since  Columbus  dropped  anchor  at  the  is- 
land of  Guanahani,  has  rendered  distant  nations  on  the 
globe  far  better  acquainted  with  each  other.  This  has,  in- 
deed, been  the  most  remarkable  period  for  its  influence  on 
all  the  true  elements  of  civilization,  which  the  world  has 
ever  known.  The  advance  of  general  knowledge,  the  com- 
ity of  national  intercouse,  and  the  policy  and  friendship  of 
nations,  has  certainly  never  before  reached  its  present  state. 
China  is  no  longer  a  sealed  nation.  British  arms  have  car- 
ried the  influence  of  arts  and  letters,  through  Hindostan» 
Abyssinia,  Persia,  and  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  have 
been  visited  and  explored.  The  deserts  of  the  Holy  Land 
hav^e  been  trod  by  learned  men  of  Europe  and  America. 
The  mouth  of  the  Niger  and  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  are 
revealed.  Even  Arabia,  the  land  where  Abraham  and  his 
descendants  once  trod,  has  sent  an  embassy  of  peace,  to  a 
government  18,000  miles  distant,  which  has  not  had  a  na- 
tional existence  over  seventy  years.  Not  only  the  rulers  of 
Arabia  and  America  have  been  thus  brought  into  the  bonds 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  17 

of  intercourse  ;  but  the  age  has  exchanged  the  arts,  the 
science  and  the  philosophy  of  the  utmost  parts  of  the  earth. 
Scientific  discovery  has  reached  its  highest  acme.  The 
sites  of  many  ancient  and  long  unknown,  though  not  for- 
gotten cities,  are  recovered.  Monuments  and  ruins  have 
been  disinterred  in  the  ancient  seats  of  human  power, 
in  the  oriental  world,  and  inscriptions  deciphered,  which 
give  vitality  to  ancient  history.  Ethnology  has  arisen  to 
hold  up  the  light  of  her  resplendent  lamp,  amid  these  ruins, 
to  guide  the  footsteps  of  letters,  science  and  piety. 

To  these  evidences  of  the  inquisitive  energy  of  the  age, 
it  has  added  new  and  important  means  of  study  and  inves* 
tigation.     The  principles  of  interpretation  which  originated 
in  the  study  of  Egyptian  monuments,  have  guided  inquiries 
in  other  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  the  discovery  of  a  key  to 
the  hieroglyphics  of  the  Nile  has  thus  reflected  light  on  the 
progress  of  monumental  researches  throughout  the  world. 
The  science  of  philology,  so  important  in  considering  the 
affinities  of  nations,  has  been  almost  wholly  created  within 
fifty  years.     Franklin  lived  and  died  without  a  knowledge 
of  it.     Astronomy  has  been  employed  to  some  extent  to  de- 
tect the  chronology  of  architectural  ruins,  and  even  the  an- 
tique history  of  America  has  been  illustrated  by  the  record 
of  an  eclipse  among  the  ancient  Mexican  picture-writings.* 
Geology,  in  her  labors  to  determine  the  character  of  the 
exhumed  bones  and  shells  of  extinct  classes  of  the  animal 
creation  of  former  eras,  has  not  failed  to  impart  the  most 
important  knowledge  of  the  physical  history  of  the  planet 
we  occupy.     Electricity  and  magnetism  have  also  enlarged 
their  boundaries.     Chemistry  is  in  the  process  of  fulfilling 
the  highest  expectations.     All  these   sources  of  knowledge 
have  been  poured  into  the  lap  of  geography  and  ethnogra- 
phy, and  given  us  a  far  better  and  truer  knowledge  of  the 
character,  resources,   and  position  of  the  nations  of  the 
world.     And  after  making  every  allowance  for  the  literary 
complacency  of  the  age,  we  are  yet  unable  to  point  to  a 


*  Yide  Gallatin's  paper — Trans.  Am.  Elh.  Society,  voL  I. 
2* 


18  INCENTIVES    TO    THE   STUDY  OP 

prior  epoch  of  the  world  when  man  had  so  fully  recovered 
his  position  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  various  phenomena  in  science,  letters  and  arts,  on 
w  ich  his  true  advance  depends. 

With  these  evidences  of  intellectual  progress  and  the  in- 
creased power  of  modern  inquiry,  there  are  redoubled  incen- 
tives to  investigate  the  obscure  period  of  American  history. 
It  has  been  said,  prematurely,  in  the  arrogance  of  European 
criticism,  that  America  has  "  no  fallen  columns "  to  exa- 
mine— "  no  inscriptions  to  decypher/'  We  answer  the  as- 
sertion by  pointing  to  the  enigmatical  walls  of  Palenque 
and  Chi  Chen  Itza,  and  to  the  polished  ruins  of  Cuzco,  and 
the  valley  of  Anahuac.  Researches  in  this  field  of  observa- 
tion have  just  commenced.  Bigotry  and  lust  of  conquest, 
led  the  early  Spanish  adventurers  to  sweep  as  with  the  be- 
som of  destruction  every  object  and  monument  of  art  which 
stood  in  their  way.  Cortez  razed  the  walls  of  ancient 
Mexico  to  the  ground  as  he  entered  it,  and  his  zealous  fol- 
lowers committed  to  the  flames  whatever  was  light  and 
combustible.  This  spirit  marked  the  entire  conquest  which 
was  carried  on  under  the  triple  mania  of  religious  bigotry, 
the  lust  of  gold,  and  the  unchastened  spirit  of  national  rob- 
bery. We  have  to  glean  for  facts  among  that  which  is  left. 
It  is  still  an  interesting  field,  but  it  has  been  hedged  up  since 
the  conquest,  by  the  jealous  spirit  and  narrow  policy  of  by 
far  the  most  gloomy  and  non-progressive  nation  of  Europe. 
Spanish  chivalry  has  been  extolled  to  the  skies,  but  it  has 
ever  been  the  chivalry  of  the  dark  ages.  She  has  fought 
for  the  antiquity  of  opinion,  while  she  has  guarded  the  ave- 
nue to  facts.  There  are  immense  districts  of  Central  and 
South  America,  which  are  yet  a  perfect  terra  incognita  to 
the  traveller  and  the  antiquarian. 

Entire  tribes  and  nations  in  the  gloomy  ranges  of  the  An- 
des and  the  Cordilleras  have  never  submitted  to  the  Spanish 
yoke,  and  still  enjoy  their  original  customs  and  institutions. 
So  far  as  modern 'explorations  have  been  made,  the  results 
are,  in  a  high  degree,  auspicious.  Mr.  Stephens  has  opened 
vistas  in  our  antiquarian  history  by  his  two  exploratory 


ANCIENT   AMERICAN   HISTORY.  19 

journies,  which  tend  to  show  how  little  we  yet  know  of  the 
ancient  epochs  of  the  country,  and  the  field  of  inquiry  is  about 
to  be  occupied  at  various  points  under  the  highest  advan- 
tages. Some  of  the  figures  and  devices  on  the  antique  walls 
and  temples  of  equinoctial  America,  appear  to  contain  in- 
formation for  a  future  Young  or  Champollion  to  reveal. 
Time  and  scrutiny  will  do  much  to  lift  the  veil  of  mystery 
from  these  ancient  ruins,  and  to  form  and  regulate  sound 
opinion  upon  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  that  quarter,  and 
their  state  of  arts.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  evidences 
exist  in  buried  antiquities  which  will  tend  to  connect  the 
arts  and  religion,  mythology  and  astronomy  of  the  eastern 
and  western  hemispheres — to  unravel  the  difliculties  in  the 
way  of  comparative  philology,  and  to  reconstruct  and  con- 
nect the  links  in  the  broken  chain  of  national  affiliation. 

Even  in  our  less  attractive  latitudes  and  longitudes,  a 
more  auspicious  and  healthy  tone  has  been  given  to  the 
spirit  of  investigation.  A  voice  from  one  of  our  western 
mounds  (which  has  been  alluded  to)  promises  to  restore  the 
reading  of  an  inscription  in  one  of  the  earliest  alphabets  of 
the  world.  Sculptures  have  recently  been  disclosed  in  some 
of  the  minor  mounds  of  the  West,  which  are  executed  in  a 
polished  style  of  art,  and  strongly  connect  the  Mexican  and 
American  tribes.  The  figures  of  animals  and  birds,  taken 
from  some  barrows  in  the  Scioto  valley,  are  executed  in  a 
manner  quite  equal  to  anything  of  the  kind  found  in  Mexico 
or  Peru. 

Mythological  evidence  is  also  assuming  more  distinctive 
grounds.  An  imitative  mound  of  a  gigantic  serpent  swal- 
lowing an  egg,  has  been  discovered  in  one  of  the  forest 
counties  of  Ohio,  while  I  have  been  engaged  in  })eiming 
these  remarks.  The  discovery  of  this  curious  structure, 
which  is  coiled  for  the  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  around 
a  hill,  transfers  to  our  soil  a  striking  and  characteristic 
portion  of  oriental  mythology.  Scarcely  a  season  passes, 
indeed,  which  does  not  add,  by  the  extension  of  our  settle- 
ments, or  the  direct  agency  of  exploration,  to  the  number  of 
monumental  evidences  of  antique  occupancy. 


20  INCENTIVES   TO    THE   STUDY    OP 

But  were  these,  indeed,  wanting — were  there  no  mounds 
or  pyramids  of  sepulture  or  sacrifice — no  remains  of  art 
— no  inscriptive  testimonies  to  speak  of  by-gone  centuries — 
we  have  before  us  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  monu- 
mental proofs  in  the  lost  and  inigmatical  race,  who  yet  rove 
the  boundless  forests  of  the  West  and  South.  Whether  there 
be  evidences  to  separate  the  eras  and  nations  of  the  most 
ancient  inhabitants  from  those  whose  descendants  yet  re- 
main, is  one  of  the  very  points  at  issue.  If  the  descendants 
of  the  mound  and  temple  builders  yet  exist,  the  traditions  of 
the  era  have  passed  from  them  in  the  process  of  their  declen- 
sion. But  whoever  the  builders  were,  and  whether  their 
blood  still  flows  in  the  existing  race  or  not,  they  clung,  like 
this  race,  so  firmly  to  their  ancient  mythology  and  religion 
as  to  impress  it  indelibly  on  the  features  of  their  architecture, 
and  in  almost  every  work  or  labor  which  they  attempted. 

Viewed  in  every  age,  the  existing  tribes  have  exhibited 
such  a  fixity  and  peculiarity  of  character,  as  to  have  ren- 
dered them  at  once  a  paradox  and  a  bye- word.  The  Turk 
has  not  been  more  inflexible  ;  nor  the  Jew  shown  more 
individuality.  We  have  hardly  begun  systematically  to 
examine  this  subject.  If  the  ancient  builders  were  no- 
mades — mere  hunters  of  the  bear,  the  deer,  and  the  bison,  who 
were  too  happy  in  the  Parthian  attainments  of  the  bow  and 
arrow  to  need  towns  and  temples — certainly  no  such  devel- 
opment arose  in  these  more  northern  latitudes.  And  yet, 
if  we  make  some  peculiar  exceptions,  it  appears  difficult  to 
suppose  that  the  entire  race,  viewed  in  its  generic  and  eth- 
nological aspect,  did  not  present  a  unity.  While  the  very 
amplitude  of  the  continent,  and  the  variety  of  its  soil,  cli- 
mate and  productions,  would  lead,  inevitably,  to  divisions 
and  sub-divisions  of  tribes  and  languages,  there  are  charac- 
teristics so  deeply  seated  in  their  organization  and  habits, 
physical  and  mental,  as  to  mark  them  as  a  peculiar  family 
of  the  Red  Type  of  man.  Adopting  this  idea  of  unity  as  a 
basis  of  study,  there  are,  at  least,  fewer  obstacles  in  group- 
ing the  phenomena  from  which  our  deductions  are  to  be 
drawn.     The  proof  of  negation  is  not  the  strongest  proof, 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  21 

but  it  is  something  to  assert  that  they  are  neither  of  Ja- 
phetic or  Hamitic  origin.  In  the  traditions  of  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  North  American  tribes,  namely,  the  Iroquois,  the 
continent  or  "  island,"  as  it  is  termed,  is  called  Aonio,*  and 
we  may  hence  denominate  the  race  Aonic,  and  the  indi- 
viduals Aonites.  If  we  do  not  advance  by  this  term  in  the 
origin  of  the  people,  we  at  least  advance  in  the  precision 
of  discussion. 

But  where  shall  we  find  a  basis,  on  which  to  rest  their 
Chronology  ?  Must  we  run  back  to  the  epoch  of  the  origi- 
nal dispersion  of  man,  or  can  we  rest  at  a  subsequent  point  ? 
Has  the  era  of  Christianity  any  definite  relation  to  their 
migration?  Was  the  migration  designed,  or  accidental? 
Did  it  consist  of  one  tribe,  or  twenty  tribes  ?  Did  it  happen 
at  one  epoch,  or  many  epochs  ?  Have  they  wandered  here 
eighteen  centuries,  or  double  that  period  ?  These  are  some 
of  the  inquiries  that  naturally  occur. 

The  first  great  question  to  be  decided  in  the  history  of  the 
Red  Race,  is,  whether  they  were,  as  they  have  been  vaguely 
called,  the  aborigines,  or  were  preceded,  on  the  continent, 
by  other  races  ?  The  second,  whether  the  type  of  civiliza- 
tion, of  which  we  behold  evidences  in  Mexico,  Yucatan  and 
South  America,  was  an  indigenous  development  of  energies 
latent  in  the  human  mind,  or  derived  its  leading  and  sug- 
gestive features  from  foreign  lands  ?  There  is  intermingled 
with  these  inquiries,  the  scarcely  less  important  one,  whether 
or  not,  the  antiquarian  ruins  of  America,  denote  an  element 
or  elements  of  European  population,  in  the  later  eras,  whose 
fate  became  involved  in  the  hunter  mass,  and  who  may  be 
supposed  to  have  been  completely  obliterated  from  the 
traditions  of  the  existing  tribes,  prior  to  the  discovery  by 
Columbus. 

Indian  tradition  has  little  or  nothing  to  offer  on  this  head. 
Time  and  barbarism  have  blotted  out  all.  The  entire  sum 
of  the  traditions  of  all  the  various  races  of  Red  men,  on  the 
continent,  when  sifted  from  the  mass  of  fabulous  and  incon- 

*  Notes  on  the  Iroquois. 


22  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

gruous  matter  by  which  it  is  accompanied,  and  when  there 
is  any  allusion  to  it  at  all,  amounts  to  this :  that  their  ances- 
tors came  from  the  east ;  a  few  tribes,  assert  that  they  had 
come  by  water.*  The  land  from  whence  they  set  out,  the 
time  devoted  to  the  purposes  of  their  long  migration,  and 
the  actual  period  of  their  landing,  and  all  such  questions,  are 
indefinite.  And  we  must  re-construct  their  chronology,  in  the 
best  way  possible,  from  a  careful  system  of  patient  historical 
and  antiquarian  induction.  Exactitude  it  cannot  have,  but  it 
may  reach  plausibility.  Granting  to  the  Scandinavian,  the 
Cimbrian  and  the  Italian  periods  of  adventure,  which  have 
been  named,  the  fullest  limits,  in  point  of  antiquity,  which 
have  under  any  circumstances  been  claimed,  we  cannot 
carry  even  this  species  of  history  beyond  the  year  A.  D. 
1001  ;  leaving  999  years  to  be  accounted  for,  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Christian  era.  The  Aztec  empire  which 
had  reached  such  a  point  of  magnificence  when  Mexico 
was  first  entered  by  Cortez,  in  1519,  did  not,  according  to 
the  picture  writings  and  Mexican  chronologists,  date  back 
farther  than  1038,  or  by  another  authority,  958.  The  Tol- 
tecs,  who  preceded  them  in  the  career  of  empire,  and  whom 
together  with  the  Chichimecs  and  their  allies  they  overthrew, 
do  not,  allowing  them  the  most  liberal  latitude  of  authors, 
extend  their  reign  beyond  A.  D.  667.  Prior  to  this,  Indian 
chronology  makes  mention  of  the  Olmecs — a  people  who 
are  described  as  having  mechanical  arts,  and  to  whom  even 
the  Toltecs  ascribed  the  erection  of  some  of  their  most 
antique  and  magnificent  monuments.  According  to  Fer- 
nando D'Alva,  himself  of  Aztec  lineage,  the  most  ancient 
date  assigned  to  the  entire  group  of  Mexican  dynasties  is 
A.  D.  299.  There  are  monuments  in  those  benignant 
latitudes  of  perpetual  summer,  exempted  as  they  are  from 
the  disintegrating  effects  of  frosts,  which  corroborate  such 
a  chronology,  and  denote  even  a  more  ancient  population, 
who  were  builders,  agriculturists  and  worshippers  of  the 


»  Such  are  the  traditions  of  the  Aztecks  and  of  the  Athapascas.     Nearly  every 
Aonic  tribe,  on  the  contrarj,  affirm  that  their  ancestors  came  out  of  the  ground. 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN   HISTORY.  23 

sun.  But  we  require  a  far  longer  period  than  any  thus 
denoted,  to  account  for  those  changes  and  subdivisions 
which  have  been  found  in  the  American  languages. 

Language  is  itself  so  irrefragable  a  testimony  of  the  mental 
affinities  of  nations,  and  so  slow  in  the  periods  of  its  mutations, 
that  it  offers  one  of  the  most  important  means  for  studying 
the  history  of  the  people.  Grammars  and  vocabularies  are 
required  of  all  the  tribes,  whose  history  and  relations  we  seek 
to  fathom,  before  we  can  successfully  compare  them  with 
each  other,  and  with  foreign  languages.  It  is  a  study  of  high 
interest,  from  the  diversity  and  curious  principles  of  the 
dialects.  There  is  a  general  agreement  in  the  principles 
of  Indian  utterance,  while  their  vocabularies  exhibit  wide 
variances.  Some  of  the  concords  required,  are  anomalous 
to  the  occidental  grammars,  while  there  is  a  manifest  gen- 
eral resemblance  to  these  ancient  plans  of  thought.  The 
most  curious  features  consist  in  the  personal  forms  of  the 
verbs,  the  constant  provision  for  limiting  the  action  to  spe- 
cific objects,  the  submergence  of  gender  in  many  cases  into 
two  great  organic  and  inorganic  classes  of  nature,  marked 
by  vitality  or  inertia,  and  the  extraordinary  power  of 
syllabical  combination,  by  which  Indian  lexicography  is 
rendered  so  graphic  and  descriptive  in  the  bestowal  of 
names.  They  are  all,  or  nearly  all,  transpositive  and  poly- 
synthetic  ;  yet  although  now  found  in  a  very  concrete  form, 
this  appears  to  have  been  not  their  original  form,  but  rather 
the  result  of  the  progress  of  syllabical  accretion,  from  a  few 
limited  roots  and  particles,  which  are  yet  when  dissected 
found  to  be  monosyllabic.  That  they  have  incorporated 
some  of  the  Hebrew  pronouns,  and  while  like  this  language, 
wanting  the  auxiliary  verb  to  he,  have  preserved  its  solemn 
causative  verb  lAU,  for  existence,  are  among  the  points  of 
the  philology  to  be  explained.  But  I  have  not  time  to  pur- 
sue this  subject.  Even  these  notices  are  made  at  the 
sacrifice  of  other  and  perhaps  more  generally  interesting 
traits  of  their  antiquity. 

The  Astronomy  of  the  American  tribes,  has  been  thought 
to  merit  attention,  in  any  attempts  to  compare  them  with 


24  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

foreign  nations.  The  evidences  of  the  attainments  of  the 
ancient  Mexicans  in  this  science,  as  vv^ell  as  the  facts  of 
their  general  history,  chronology  and  languages,  have  been 
examined  by  the  venerable  archaeologist  and  ex-statesman, 
who  presides  over  this  society,  in  a  critical  dissertation, 
published  by  the  American  Ethnological  Society,  which  is 
the  ablest  paper  of  the  age.  The  results  of  Mr.  Gallatin's 
labors,  and  his  reading  of  the  ancient  scrolls  of  Mexican 
picture  writing,  preserved  in  the  folios  of  Lord  Kingsborough, 
while  the}''  limit  the  amount  of  precise  historical  information 
in  these  unique  records  to  very  narrow  grounds,  yet  denote 
a  degree  of  system  and  exactitude,  both  in  their  chronology 
and  astronomy,  which  are  very  remarkable. 

The  simple  astronomy  of  our  Aonic  tribes  of  the  north, 
gave  them  a  lunar  year,  consisting  of  twelve  moons.  They 
consequently  had  a  year  of  about  three  hundred  and  sixty 
days.  As  they  had  no  names  for  days,  no  week  and  no 
subperiods  of  a  moon,  but  noticed  and  relied  simply  on  the 
moon's  phases,  they  did  not  become  acquainted  with  the 
necessity  of  intercalations  for  the  true  length  of  the  year. 
The  Aztecks  of  Mexico,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  solar  year, 
and  had  made  an  extraordinary  advance  in  computing  the 
true  time.  Their  year  consisted  of  eighteen  months,  of 
twenty  days  each,  a  perfectly  arbitrary  system.  This  di- 
vision would  give  but  three  hundred  and  sixty  days  to  the 
year.  The  remaining  five  were  called  empty  or  superfious 
days,  and  were  added  to  the  last  month  of  the  eighteen.  A 
tropical  year  is,  however,  about  six  hours  longer  than  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  and  by  throwing  away  six 
hours  annually,  there  would  be  an  entire  day  lost  every 
four  years.  The  Mexican  astronomers  were  well  aware  of 
this  fact ;  but  instead  of  supplying  the  deficiency  every 
fourth  year  as  we  do,  they  disregarded  it  entirely,  till  a 
whole  cycle  consisting  of  fifty- two  years  was  completed, 
and  then  they  intercalated  thirteen  days,  to  make  up  the 
time  and  complete  their  cycle.  In  this  way  they  came  to 
the  same  result  as  the  Egyptians,  but  by  a  different  process, 
since  the  Egyptian  calendar  was  founded  on  a  computation 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  25 

of  twelve  lunar  months  of  thirty  days  each.  It  was  pre- 
cisely the  same  in  the  old  Persian  calendar,  which  consisted 
of  a  year  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  days,  made  up  of 
twelve  months  of  thirty  days  each. 

The  Aztecs  divided  their  cycle  of  fifty  two  years,  into  four 
periods  of  thirteen  years  ;  called  Tlalpilli,  and  their  month 
of  twenty  days,  into  four  sub-periods,  or  weeks,  of  five  days. 
The  cycle  was  called  Xiuhmolpilli,  which  signifies,  "  the 
tying  up  of  years."  Each  day  of  the  month  had  a  separate 
name,  derived  from  some  animate,  or  inanimate  object,  as 
TochtUf  a  rabbit,  Calli,  a  house,  Atl,  water,  Tecpatl,  Silex, 
Xochitl,  a  flower,  Cohuatl,  a  serpent.  The  fifth  day,  was 
a  fair  or  market  day.  The  names  of  the  days  were  repre- 
sented by  hieroglyphic  figures  of  the  objects  described.  The 
divisions  were  perfect  and  regular,  and  enabled  them  to  de- 
note, in  their  scrolls  of  picture  writing,  the  chronology  of  the 
month,  and  of  the  Tlalpilli,  or  period  of  thirteen  years.* 

The  scheme  itself  denotes,  not  only  a  very  certain  mode 
of  keeping  the  record  of  time,  but  a  very  exact  knowledge 
of  the  tropical  year.  It  is  now  known  that  the  length  of  the 
year  is  precisely  three  hundred  and  sixty  five  days,  five  hours, 
forty  eight  minutes,  and  forty  eight  seconds  ;  and  it  is 
perfectly  well  ascertained,  that  the  Aztecs  computed  its 
length,  at  the  period  of  their  highest  advance,  at  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty  five  days,  five  hours,  forty  six  minutes,  and 
nine  seconds,  differing  only  two  minutes  and  thirty  nine  se- 
conds from  our  own  computation,  f  There  is  evidence,  indeed, 
that  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  this  continent,  had  more 
science,  than  is  generally  conceded.  If  we  are  to  credit 
writers,  the  Aztecs  understood  the  true  causes  of  eclipses, 

*  As  to  the  market  day  or  week  of  five  days,  Sir  Wm.  Jones  and  Sir  Stam- 
ford Raffles,  tell  us  that  the  same  period,  existed,  for  the  same  purpose,  in  India. 
In  the  symbols  for  days,  we  find  four  to  correspond  exactly  with  the  zodiacal  signs 
of  India,  eight  with  those  of  Thibet,  six  with  those  of  Siam  and  Japan,  and  others 
with  those  of  the  Chinese  and  Moguls. 

t  With  respect  to  intercalations,  various  periods  have  been  taken  by  ancient 
nations.  And  while  we  take  the  shortest  possible  one,  of  four  years,  and  the  Az- 
tecs took  fifty  two,  the  Chinese  took  sixty,  and  the  Persians  one  hundred  and 
twenty. 

3 


26  INCENTIVES  TO  THE  STUDY  OF 

as  well  as  we  do.  Diagrams  exist,  in  their  pictorial  records, 
in  which  the  earth  is  represented  as  projecting  its  disc  upon 
the  moon — thus  indicating,  clearly,  a  true  knowledge  of 
this  phenomenon.  Mr.  Gallatin  remarks  that  the  Indian 
astronomical  system,  as  developed  in  Mexico,  is  not  one  of 
indigenous  origin,  but  that  they  had,  manifestly,  received  it, 
at  least  their  calendar,  from  a  foreign  source.  Its  results 
could  not  have  been  attained  without  long  and  patient  ob- 
servations. Some  of  its  methods  of  combination,  in  the 
double  use  of  names  and  figures,  in  their  cycles,  are  thought 
to  denote  an  ancient  primitive  system  of  oriental  astronomy, 
reaching  back  to  the  earliest  times.  Here,  then,  we  have 
one  probable  fact  to  serve  as  the  nucleus  of  antiquarian 
testimony.     We  begin  it  abroad. 

The  architecture  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  has  been  illustrated,  within  a  few  years,  by  several 
elaborate  works ;  and  the  subject  may  be  deemed  to  have 
been  brought,  by  these  works,  within  the  scope  of  study  and 
comparison.  There  are  two  features  in  this  unique  order  of 
architecture,  which  appear  to  denote  great  antiquity  in  the 
principles  developed,  namely,  the  arch  and  the  pyramid. 
These  nations  appear  to  have  had  the  use  of  squares  and 
parallelograms,  in  their  geometry,  without  circles,  or  para- 
bolic lines.  The  only  form  of  the  arch  observed,  is  that  call- 
ed the  Cyclopean  arch,  which  is  made  by  one  course  of 
stones  overlapping  another,  till  the  two  walls  meet,  and  a 
flat  stone  covers  the  space.  This  is  the  earliest  type  of  the 
arch  known  among  mankind,  and  is  believed  to  be  more  an- 
cient than  the  foundation  of  any  city  in  Europe. 

The  pyramid,  as  developed  in  the  temple  of  the  sun  at  Tez- 
cuco,  the  Mexican  teocalli,  and  the  Aonic  mounds  of  North 
America,  compose  a  form  of  architecture  equally  ancient ; 
which  can  be  traced  back  over  the  plains  of  Asia,  to  the 
period  of  the  original  dispersion  of  mankind.  The  temple 
of  Belus,  was  but  a  vast  pyramid,  raised  for  the  worship  of 
Bel.  Originating  in  the  Hamitic  tribes,  in  the  alluvial  val- 
lies  and  flat-lands  of  Asia  Minor,  a  perfect  infatuation,  on 
the  subject,  appears  to  have  possessed  the  early  oriental  na- 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY. 


27 


tions,  and  they  carried  the  idea  into  the  valley  of  the  Nile, 
and,  indeed,  wherever  they  went.  It  appeared  to  be  the 
substitute  of  idolatrous  nations,  on  alluvial  lands,  for  an 
isolated  hill,  or  promontory.  It  was  at  such  points  that 
Baal  and  Bel  were  worshipped,  and  hence  the  severe  injunc- 
tions of  the  sacred  volume,  on  the  worship  established  in 
the  oriental  world  "  on  high  places."  Such  was  the  position 
of  the  pyramids  in  the  vallies  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Nile, 
and  the  idea  appears  to  have  reached  America  w  ithout  any 
deviation  whatever  in  its  relative  position,  or  its  general 
design.  It  was  every  were,  throughout  America,  as  we  find 
it,  in  the  vallies  of  Mexico  and  the  Mississippi,  erected  in  rich 
and  level  vallies,  or  plains,  and  dedicated  to  idolatrous 
worship. 

The  mound  builders  of  North  America,  north  of  the 
tropical  latitudes,  appear  like  bad  copyists  of  a  sublime 
original.  They  retained  the  idea  of  the  oriental  pyramid, 
but  being  no  mechanics  constructed  piles  of  earth  to  answ^er 
the  ancient  purpose,  both  of  worship  and  interment.  Our 
largest  structures  of  this  kind,  are  the  mound  of  Grave 
Creek  in  Western  Virginia,  containing  about  three  millions 
of  cubic  feet,  and  the  great  group  of  the  Monks  of  La  Trappe 
in  Illinois,  estimated  at  seven  millions  of  cubic  feet.*  Those 
of  Saint  Louis,  mount  Joliet,  and  the  Blue  mounds  respec- 
tively are  now  known  to  be  of  geological  origin. 

But  the  Mexican  and  South  American  tribes  built  more 
boldly,  and  have  left  several  specimens  of  the  pyramids, 
which  deserve  to  be  mentioned,  as  well  from  the  evidences 
they  afford  of  mechanical  skill,  as  from  their  magnificent 
proportions,  and  their  Nilotic  power  of  endurance.  The 
pyramid  of  Cholula,  in  the  valley  of  Mexico,  exists  in  three 
vast  steps,  retreating  as  they  ascend,  the  highest  of  which 
was  crowned  with  a  temple,  whose  base  w^as  one  hundred 
and  seventy-seven  feet  above  the  plain.  This  is  nine  feet 
higher  than  that  of  Myrcerinus,  the  third  of  the  great  group 
of  Ghiza  on  the  Nile  ;  but  its  base  of  one  thousand  four 

*  The  central  mound  of  this  group  has  been  cut  through  since  the  date  of  my 
paper  before  the  Ethnological  Society,  and  proved  to  be  artificial 


28  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

hundred  and  twenty-three  feet,  exceeds  that  of  any  edifice 
of  the  kind  found  by  travellers  in  the  old  world,  and  is 
double  that  of  Cheops.  To  realize  a  clear  idea  of  its  mag- 
nitude, we  may  imagine  a  solid  structure  of  earth,  bricks 
and  stone,  which  would  fill  the  Washington  parade  ground, 
squared  by  its  east  and  west  lines,  and  rising  seventj^-five 
feet  above  the  turrets  of  the  New  York  University. 

The  pyramids  of  the  empire  of  the  Incas  are  not  less 
remarkable.     There  are  at  Saint  Juan  Teotihuacan,  near 
lake  Tezcuco,  in  the  Mexican  valley,  two  very  large  an- 
tique   pyramids,  which  were  consecrated    by  the  ancient 
inhabitants  to  the  Sun  and  Moon.      The  largest,  called 
Tonatiuh  Ytzalqual,  or  the  House  of  the  Sun,  has  a  base  of 
two  hundred  and  eight  metres,  or  six  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  English    feet  in  length,  and   fifty-five  metres  or  one 
hundred    and    eighty  feet   perpendicular  elevation ;  being 
three  feet  higher  than  the  great  pyramid  of  Cholula.     The 
other,  called  Meztu  Ytzaqual,  or  House  of  the    Moon,  is 
thirty-six  feet  lower,  and  has  a  lesser  base.     These  monu- 
ments, according  to  the  first  accounts,  were  erected  by  the 
most  ancient    tribes,  and  were  the  models  of  the    Aztec 
Teocalli.     The  faces  of  these  pyramids  are  within  fifty-two 
seconds,  exactly  north  and  south  and  east  and  west.     Their 
interior  consists  of   massive  clay  and  stone.      This   solid 
nucleus  is  covered  by  a  kind  of  porous  amygdaloid,  called 
tetzontli.     They  are  ascended  by  steps  of  hewn  stone  to 
their  pinnacles,  where  tradition  affirms,  there  were  anciently 
statues  covered  with  thin  lamina  of  gold.     And  it  was  on 
these  sublime  heights,  with  the  clear  tropical  skies  of  Mex- 
ico above  them,  that  the  Toltec  magi  lit  the  sacred  fire 
upon  their  altars,  offered  up  incense,  and  chanted  hymns. 

One  fact  in  connexion  with  these  ancient  structures  is 
remarkable,  on  account  of  its  illustrative  character  of  the 
use  of  our  small  mounds.  Around  the  base  of  these  pyra- 
mids, there  were  found  numerous  smaller  pyramids,  or 
cones  of  scarcely  nine  or  ten  metres — twenty-nine  to  thirty 
feet  elevation,  which  were  dedicated  to  the  stars.  These  . 
minor  elevations,  were  generally  arranged  at  right  angles  ^ 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  29 

They  furnished  also  places  of  sepulture  for  their  distin- 
guished chiefs,  and  hence  the  avenue  leading  through  them, 
was  called  Micoatl,  or  Road  of  the  Dead.  We  have  in  this 
arrangement  a  hint  of  the  object  of  the  numerous  small 
mounds,  which  generally  surround  the  large  mounds  in  the 
Mississippi  valley — as  may  be  witnessed  in  the  remarkable 
group  of  La  Trappe,  in  Illinois.  A  similar  arrangement, 
indeed,  prevails  in  the  smaller  series  of  the  leading 
mound  groups  west  of  the  AUeghanies.  They  may  be  called 
Star-mounds.  If  this  theory  be  correct,  we  have  not  only  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  object  of  the  smaller  groups, 
which  has  heretofore  puzzled  inquirers ;  but  the  presence 
of  such  groups  may  be  taken  as  an  evidence  of  the  wide 
spread  worship  of  the  Sun,  at  an  early  period  in  these 
latitudes. 

Sun-worship  existed  extensively  in  North  America  as 
well  as  South.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  ancestors 
of  all  the  principal  existing  tribes  in  America,  worshipped 
an  Eternal  Fire.  Both  from  their  records  and  traditions, 
as  well  as  their  existing  monuments,  this  deduction  is  ir- 
resistible. Not  only  the  Olmecs  and  Toltecs,  who  built  the 
temples  of  the  sun  and  moon,  near  the  lake  of  Tezcuco — 
not  only  the  Auricaneans,  who  obeyed  the  voice  of  the  First 
Inca,  in  erecting  the  temple  of  the  Sun  at  the  foot  of  the 
Andes  ;  but  the  Aztecs,  even  at  the  later  and  more  cor- 
rupted period  of  their  rites,  adhered  strongly  to  this 
fundamental  rite.  It  is  to  be  traced  from  the  tropical 
latitudes  into  the  Mississippi  valley,  where  the  earth-mound 
it  is  apprehended,  rudely  supplied  the  place  of  its  more 
gorgeous,  southern  prototype.  When  they  had  raised  the 
pile  of  earth  as  high  as  their  means  and  skill  dictated,  facts 
denote  that  they  erected  temples  and  altars  at  its  apex.  On 
the^e  altars,  tradition  tells  us,  they  burned  the  tobacco 
plant,  which  maintains  its  sacred  character  unimpaired  to 
the  present  day.  From  the  traditions  which  are  yet  extant 
in  some  of  the  tribes,  they  regarded  the  sun  as  the  symbol 
of  Divine  Intelligence.  They  paid  him  no  human  sacrifices, 
but  offered  simply  incense,  and  dances  and  songs.  They 
3*  . 


30  INCENTIVES   TO   THE    STUDY   Of 

had  an  order  of  priesthood,  resembling  the  ancient  magi, 
who  possessed  the  highest  influence  and  governed  the  des- 
tinies of  the  tribes.  It  is  past  all  doubt  that  Manco  Capac, 
was  himself  one  of  these  magi :  and  it  is  equally  apparent, 
that  the  order  exists  at  this  day,  although  shorn  of  much  of 
its  ancient,  external  splendor,  in  the  solemn  metais,  and 
sacrificial  jossakeeds,  w\io  sw^ay  the  simple  multitudes  in 
the  North  American  forests.  Among  these  tribes,  the 
graphic  Ke-ke-win,  which  depicts  the  Sun,  stands  on  their 
pictorial  rolls,  as  the  symbol  of  the  Great  Spirit ;  and  no 
important  rite  or  ceremony  is  undertaken  without  an  offer- 
ing of  tobacco.  This  vreed  is  lit  with  the  sacred  element, 
generated  anew  on  each  occasion,  from  percussion.  To 
light  and  to  put  out  this  fire,  is  the  symbolic  language  for 
the  opening  and  closing  of  every  important  civil  or  religious 
public  transaction,  and  it  is  the  most  sacred  rite  known  to 
them.  It  is  never  done  without  an  appeal,  which  has  the 
characteristics  of  prayer,  to  the  Great  Spirit.  To  find  in 
America,  a  system  of  worship  which  existed  in  Mesopotamia, 
in  the  era  of  the  patriarch  Job,  one  thousand  five  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  the  advent  of  Christ,  is  certainly 
remarkable,  and  is  suggestive  both  of  the  antiquity  and 
origin  of  the  tribes. 

Geology  is  not  without  its  testimony  in  this  connexion. 
The  antiquity  of  human  occupancy  in  the  Mississippi  val- 
ley is  so  extreme,  that  it  appears  to  mingle  its  evidences 
with  some  of  its  more  recent  grsological  phenomena.  The 
gradual  disintegration  and  replacement  of  strata  in  that 
quarter  of  the  country,  involve  facts  which  are  quite  in  ac- 
cordance Mrith  evidences  of  ancient  eras  drawn  from  other 
sources.  It  is  some  seven  and  twenty  years  since  the  ear- 
liest evidences  of  this  kind  arrested  my  attention.  I  was 
then  descending  the  valley  of  the  Unicau  or  White  river,  in 
the  present  area  of  Arkansas.  This  is  one  of  that  series  of 
large  streams  which  descends  the  great  slope  oxWasser shied, 
extending  from  the  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  into  the 
lower  Mississippi.  These  streams  have  carried  down  for 
ages  the  loosened  materials  of  the  elevated  and  mountain- 


ANCIENT   AMERICAN   HISTORY.  31  . 

ous  parts  of  that  great  range  into  the  delta  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, filling  up  immense  ancient  inlets  and  seas,  and  push- 
ing its  estuary  into  the  Mexican  gulf.  They  are  still  to  be 
regarded  as  the  vast  geological  laboratory  in  which  so 
large  a  part  of  the  plains,  islands  and  shores  of  that  great 
ofF-drain  of  the  continent  have  been  prepared.  The  evi- 
dences referred  to  in  the  descent  of  the  Unicau,  consisted  of 
antique,  coarse  pottery,  scoria  and  ashes,  together  with  a 
metallic  alloy  of  a  whitish  hue,  but  capable  of  being  cut 
partially  with  a  knife.  There  were  also  deposites  of  bones, 
but  so  decayed  and  fragmentary  as  to  make  it  impossible 
to  determine  their  specific  character.  All  these  were,  geolo- 
gically, beneath  the  various  strata  of  sand,  loam  and  veget- 
able mould,  supporting  the  heavy  primitive  forest  of  that 
valley.  At  Little  Rock,  in  the  valley  of  the  Arkansas,  ves- 
tiges of  art  have  recently  been  found  in  similar  beds  of  de- 
nudation, at  considerable  depths  below  the  surface  of  the 
wooded  plains.  They  consisted  of  a  subterraneous  furnace, 
together  with  broken  clay  kettles.  In  other  portions  of  this 
wide  slope  of  territory,  a  species  of  antique  bricks  have 
been  disinterred.*  It  is  in  this  general  area,  and  in  strata 
of  a  similar  age,  that  gigantic  bones,  tusks  and  teeth  of  the 
mastodon,  and  other  extinct  quadrupeds,  have  been  so  pro- 
fusely found  within  a  few  years,  particularly  in  the  Osage 
valley. 

But  the  greatest  scene  of  superficial  disturbance  of  post- 
human  occupancy,  appears  in  the  great  alluvial  angle  of 
territory  which  lies  between  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio,  ex- 
tending to  their  junction.  This  area  constitutes  the  grand 
prairie  section  of  lower  Illinois.  The  Big  Bone  Lick  of  the 
Ohio,  the  original  seat  of  the  discovery  of  the  bones  of  the 
megalonyx  and  mastodon,  announced  by  Mr.  Jefferson  to 
the  philosophers  of  Europe,  connects  itself  with  this  element 
of  continental  disturbance.  Its  western  limits  are  cut 
through  by  the  Mississippi,  which  washes  precipitous  cliffs 
of  rock,  between  a  promontory  or  natural  pyramid  of  lime- 

*  Arkansas  paper. 


82  INCENTIVES   TO   THE   STUDY   OF 

Stone,  standing  in  its  bed  called  Grand  Tower,  and  the  city 
of  St.  Louis,  extending  even  to  a  point  opposite  the  junction 
of  the  Missouri.  Directly  opposite  these  secondary  cliffs, 
on  the  Illinois  shore,  extends  transversely  for  one  hundred 
miles,  the  noted  alluvial  tract  called  the  American  bottom. 
This  tract  discloses,  at  great  depths,  buried  trunks  of  trees, 
fresh-w^ater  shells,  animal  bones  and  various  wrecks  of 
pre-existing  orders  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  creation. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Sabine  river,  which  flows  into  the  Ohio, 
there  was  lound,  some  few  years  ago,  in  the  progress  of 
excavations  made  for  salt  water,  coarse  clay  kettles  of  from 
eight  to  ten  gallons  capacity,  and  fragments  of  earthenware, 
imbedded  at  the  depth  of  eighty  feet.  The  limestone  rocks 
of  the  Missouri  coast,  above  noticed,  which  form  the  western 
verge  of  this  antique  lacustrine  sea,  have  produced  some 
curious  organic  foot-tracks  of  animals  and  other  remains  ; 
and  the  faces  of  these  cliffs  exhibit  deep  and  well  marked 
water  lines,  as  if  they  had  been  acted  on  by  a  vast  body  of 
water,  standing  for  long  and  fixed  periods,  at  a  high  level, 
and  subject  to  be  acted  on  by  winds  and  tempests.  Indeed, 
it  requires  but  little  examination  of  the  various  phenomena, 
oflTered  at  this  central  point  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  to  sup- 
pose that  the  southern  boundary  of  this  ancient  oceanic- 
lake,  ran  in  the  direction  of  the  Grand  Tower  and  Cave  in 
rock  groups,  and  that  an  arm  of  the  sea  or  gulf  of  Mexico, 
must  have  extended  to  the  indicated  foot  of  this  ancient 
lacustrine  barrier.  At  this  point,  there  appear  evidences 
also  of  the  existence  of  mighty  ancient  cataracts.  The  topic 
is  one  which  has  impressed  me  as  being  well  entitled  to 
investigation,  and  is  hastily  introduced  here  among  the 
branches  of  inquiry  bearing  on  my  subject.  But  it  cannot 
be  dwelt  upon,  although  it  is  connected  with  an  interesting 
class  of  kindred  phenomena,  in  other  parts  of  the  west. 

I  have  already  occupied  the  time,  which  1  had  prescribed 
to  myself  in  these  remarks.  It  has  been  impossible  to  con- 
sider many  topics,  upon  which  a  true  understanding  of  the 
antique  period  of  our  history  depends.  But  I  cannot  close 
them,  without  a  brief   allusion  to  the  leadjng   traite  and 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  33 

history  of  the  Red  Race,  whose  former  advance  in  the  arts, 
and  whose  semi-civilization  in  the  equinoctial  latitudes  of 
the  continent,  we  have  been  contemplating. 

That  these  tribes  are  a  people  of  great  antiquity,  far 
greater  than  has  been  assigned  to  them,  is  denoted  by  the 
considerations  already  mentioned.  Their  languages,  their 
astronomy,  their  architecture  and  their  very  ancient  religion 
and  mythology,  prove  this.  But  a  people  who  live  without 
letters,  must  expect  their  history  to  perish  with  them.  Tra- 
dition soon  degenerates  into  fable,  and  fable  has  filled  the 
oldest  histories  of  the  world,  with  childish  incongruities  and 
recitals  of  gross  imrnoralities.  In  this  respect,  the  Indian 
race  have  evinced  less  imagination  than  the  Greeks  and 
Rom^ans,  who  have  filled  the  world  with  their  lewd  philoso- 
phy of  genealogy,  but  their  myths  are  quite  as  rational  and 
often  better  founded  than  those  of  the  latter.  To  restore 
their  history  from  the  rubbish  of  their  traditions,  is  a  hope- 
less task.  We  must  rely  on  other  data,  the  nature  of  which 
has  been  mentioned.  To  seek  among  ruins,  to  decypher 
hieroglyphics,  to  unravel  myths,  to  study  ancient  systems  of 
worship  and  astronomy,  and  to  investigate  vocabularies  and 
theories  of  language,  are  the  chief  methods  before  us  ;  and 
these  call  for  the  perseverance  of  Sysiphus  and  the  clear 
inductive  powers  of  Bacon.  Who  shall  touch  the  scattered 
bones  of  aboriginal  history  with  the  spear  of  truth,  and 
cause  the  skeleton  of  their  ancient  society  to  arise  and  live  ? 
We  may  never  see  this  ;  but  we  may  hold  out  incentives  to 
the  future  scholar,  to  labor  in  this  department. 

Of  their  origin,  it  is  yet  premature,  on  the  basis  of  ethno- 
logy, to  decide.  There  is  no  evidence — not  a  particle,  that 
the  tribes  came  to  the  continent  after  the  opening  of  the 
Christian  era.  Their  religion  bears  far  more  the  charac- 
teristics of  Zoroaster,  than  of  Christ.  It  has  also  much 
more  that  assimilates  it  to  the  land  of  Chaldea,  than  to  the 
early  days  of  the  land  of  Palestine.  The  Cyclopean  arch, 
and  the  form  of  the  pyramid,  point  back  to  very  ancient 
periods.  Their  language  is  constructed  on  a  very  antique 
plan  gf  thought.     Their  symbolic  system  of  picture  writing 


34  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

is  positively  the  oldest  and  first  form  of  recording  ideas  the 
world  ever  knew.  The  worship  of  the  sun  is  the  earliest 
form  of  human  idolatry.  Their  calendar  and  system  of 
astronomy  reveal  traits  common  to  that  of  China,  Persia, 
or  Hindostan.  Mr.  Gallatin,  from  the  consideration  of  the 
languages  alone,  is  inclined  to  think  that  they  might  have 
reached  the  continent  within  five  hundred  years  after  the 
original  dispersion.  That  they  are  of  the  Shemitic  stock, 
cannot  be  questioned.  The  only  point  to  be  settled,  indeed, 
appears  to  be,  from  what  branch  of  that  very  wddely  dis- 
persed, and  intermingled  race  of  idolaters  and  warriors 
they  broke  loose,  and  how,  and  in  what  manner,  and  during 
what  era,  or  eras,  they  found  their  way  to  these  shores  ? 

But,  however  these  questions  may  be  decided,  this  is  cer- 
tain, that  civilization,  government  and  arts  began  to 
develope  themselves  first  in  the  tropical  regions  of  Mexico 
and  Central  America.  Mexico  itself,  in  the  process 
of  time,  became  to  the  ancient  Indian  tribes,  the  Rome  of 
America.  Like  its  proud  prototype  in  Europe,  it  was  in- 
vaded by  one  barbaric  tribe  after  another,  to  riot  and  plun- 
der, but  who,  in  the  end,  adopted  the  type  of  civilization, 
which  they  came  to  destroy.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the 
Toltecs   and  the  Aztecs,  whom  Cortez  conquered. 

When  we  turn  our  view  from  this  ancient  centre  of  Indian 
power,  to  the  latitudes  of  the  American  Republic,  we  find 
the  territory  covered,  at  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, with  numerous  tribes,  of  divers  languages,  existing  in 
the  mere  hunter  state,  or  at  most,  with  some  habits  of  hor- 
ticulture superadded.  They  had  neither  cattle  nor  arts. 
They  were  bowmen  and  spearmen — roving  and  predatory, 
with  very  little,  if  any  thing,  in  their  traditions,  to  link 
them  to  these  prior  central  families  of  men,  but  with  nearly 
every  thing  in  their  physical  and  intellectual  type,  to  favor 
such  a  generic  affiliation.  They  erected  groups  of  mounds, 
to  sacrifice  to  the  sun,  moon  and  stars.*  They  were,  origi- 
nally, fire- worshippers.  They  spoke  one  general  class  of 
transpositive  languages.  They  had  implements  of  copper, 
as  well  as  of  silex,  and  porphyries.     They  made  cooking 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.     .  35 

vessels  of  tempered  clay.  They  carved  very  beautiful  and 
perfect  models  of  birds  and  quadrupeds,  out  of  stone,  as  we  see 
in  some  recently  opened  mounds.  They  cultivated  the  most 
important  of  all  the  ancient  Mexican  grains,  the  zea  mays. 
They  raised  the  tobacco  plant,  to  be  offered,  to  their  Gods, 
as  frankincense.  They  used  the  Aztec  drum  in  their  reli- 
gious ceremonies  and  war  dances.  They  employed  the 
very  ancient  Asiatic  art  of  recording  ideas,  by  means  of 
representative  devices.  They  believed  in  the  oriental  doc- 
trines of  transformation,  and  the  power  of  necromancy. 
Their  oral  fictions  on  this  head,  are  so  replete  with  fancy, 
that  they  might  give  scope  to  the  lyre  of  some  future  west- 
ern Ovid.  They  held,  with  Pythagoras,  the  doctrine  of  the 
transmigration  of  souls.  They  believed,  indeed,  in  dupli- 
cate souls.  They  believed  with  Zoroaster,  in  the  two  great 
creative  and  antagonistical  principles  of  Ormusd  and  Ahri- 
man,  and  they  had  tiie.v,  and  have  still,  an  influential  and . 
powerful  order  of  priests,  who  uphold  the  principles  of  a 
sacred  fire. 

To  these  principles,  they  appeal  now,  as  they  did  in  the 
days  of  the  discovery.  They  believe  in  the  sacred  charac- 
ter of  Fire,  and  regard  it  as  the  mysterious  element  of  the 
Universe,  which  typifies  the  Divinity.  They  believe,  and 
practice  strictly,  with  the  descendants  of  Abraham,  the  law 
of  separation,  but  not  the  practice  of  circumcision.  With 
the  ancient  PhoBnicians,  they  attribute  extraordinary  pow- 
ders, to  the  wisdom  and  subtlety  of  the  Serpent,  and  this 
reptile  holds  a  high  place  in  their  mythology.  They  regard 
the  Tortoise,  as  the  original  increment,  and  medium  of  the 
creation  of  the  Earth,  and  view  the  Bear  and  the  Wolf  as 
enchanted  heroes  of  supernatural  energies.  And  they  have 
adopted  the  devices  of  these  three  animals  as  the  general 
Totemic  types  and  bond  of  their  separation  into  clans. 
They  are  as  observant  as  any  of  the  orientalists  were,  of 
the  flight  of  birds.  They  draw,  with  the  ancient  Chaldeans, 
prognostications  from  the  clouds.  They  preserve  the  simple 
music  of  the  Arcadian  pipe,  which  is  dedicated  to  love. 
They  people   their  woods   and   mountains,   and   romantic 


36  INCENTIVES    TO    THE    STUDY    OF 

water-falls,  with  various  classes  of  wood  and  water  nymphs, 
fairies  and  genii.  They  had  anticipated  the  author  of  the 
"  Rape  of  the  Lock"  in  the  creation  of  a  class  of  personal 
gnomes,  who  nimbly  dance  over  the  lineaments  of  the  hu- 
man frame.  They  have  a  class  of  seers  and  prophets,  who 
mutter  from  the  ground,  the  decisions  of  fate  and  Provi- 
dence. They  believe  in  the  idea  of  ghosts,  witchcraft,  and 
vampires.  They  place  the  utmost  reliance  on  dreams  and 
night  visions.  A  dream  and  a  revelatipn,  are  synonymous. 
Councils  are  called,  and  battles  are  fought  on  the  prognos- 
tications of  a  dream.  They  are  astrologers  and  star-gazers, 
and  draw  no  small  part  of  their  mythology  from  the  skies. 
They  fast  to  obtain  the  favor  of  the  Deity,  and  they  feast, 
at  the  return  of  the  first  fruits.  They  have  concentrated 
the  wisdom  and  fancy  of  their  forefathers  and  sages,  in  al- 
legories and  fables.  With  the  Arabs,  they  are  gifted  in  the 
relation  of  fictitious  domestic  tales,  in  which  necromancy 
and  genii,  constitute  the  machinery  of  thought.  With  the 
ancient  Mesopotamians,  Persians  and  Copts,  they  practice 
the  old  art  of  ideographic,  or  picture  writing.  They  are 
excellent  local  geographers,  and  practical  naturalists. 
There  is  not  an  animal,  fish,  insect  or  reptile  in  America, 
whose  character  and  habitudes  they  do  not  accurately  and 
practically  know.  They  believe  the  earth  to  be  a  plain, 
with  four  corners,  and  the  sky  a  hemisphere  of  material 
substance*like* brass,  or  metal,  through  which  the  planets 
shine,  and  around  which  the  sun  and  moon  revolve.  Over 
all,  they  install  the  power  of  an  original  Deity,  who  is 
called  the  Great  Spirit,  who  is  worshipped  by  fire,  who  is 
invoked  by  prayer,  and  who  is  regarded,  from  the  cliffs  of 
the  Monadnock,*  to  the  waters  of  the  Nebraska,!  as  omnipo- 
tent,  immaterial,  and  omnipresent. 

That  this  race  has  dwelt  on  the  continent  long  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era,  all  facts  testify.  If  they  are  not 
older  as  a  people,  than  most  of  the  present  nations  on  the 


»  A  mountain  in  New  Hampshire,  seen  from  the  sea. 
t  The  Indian  name  of  the  river  La  Plate. 


m 


ANCIENT    AMERICAN    HISTORY.  37 

Asiatic  shores  of  the  Indian  ocean,  as  has  been  suggested, 
they  are  certainly  anterior  in  age,  to  the  various  groups 
of  the  Polynesian  islands.     They  have,  it  is  apprehended, 
taken  the  impress  of  their  character  and  mental  ideocracy 
from  the  early  tribes  of  Western  Asia,  which  was  originally 
peopled,  to  a  great  extent,  by  the  descendants  of  Shera. 
These    fierce  tribes  crowded    each  other,  as  one  political 
wave  trenches  on  another,  till  they  have  apparently  travers- 
ed its  utmost  bounds.     How  they  have  effected  the  traject 
here,  and  by  what  process,  or  contingency,  are  merely  cu- 
rious questions,  and  can  never  be  satisfactorily  answered. 
The  theory  of  a  migration  by  Behring's  straits,  is  untenable. 
If  we  could  find  adequate  motives  for  men  to  cross  thence, 
we  cannot  deduce  the  tropical  animals.     We  cannot  erect 
a  history   from  materials  so  slender.      It  may    yield    one 
element  of  population  ;  but  we  require  the  origin  of  many. 
But  while  we  seek   for  times  and    nations,  we  have  the 
indubitable  evidences  of  the  general  event  or  events  in  the 
people  before  us,  and  we  are  justified  by  philology  alone,  in 
assigning  to  it  an  epoch  or  epochs,  which  are  sufficiently 
remote  and  conformable  to  the  laws  of  climate,  to  account 
for  all  the  phenomena.      No  such  epoch  seems  adequate 
this  side  of  the  final  overthrow  of  Babylon,  or  general  dis- 
persion of   mankind,    or   the    period    of  the  conquest    of 
Palestine.     One  singular  and   extraordinary  result,  in  the 
fulfilment  of  a  very  ancient  prophecy  of  the  human  family, 
may  be  noticed.     It  is  this.     Assuming  the  Indian  tribes  to 
be  of  Shemitic  origin,  which  is  generally  conceded,  they 
were  met  on  this  continent,  in  1492,  by  the  Japhetic  race, 
after  the  two  stocks  had  passed  round  the  globe  by  directly 
different  routes.     Within  a  few  years  subsequent  to  this 
event,  as  is  well  attested,  the  humane  influence  of  an  emi- 
nent Spanish  ecclesiastic,  led  to  the  calling  over  from  the 
coasts  of  Africa,  of  the  Hamitic  branch.     As  a  mere  histo- 
rical question,  and  without  mingling  it  in  the  slightest  degree 
with  any  other,  the  result  of  three  centuries  of  occupancy, 
has  been  a  series  of  movements  in  all  the  colonial  stocks, 
south  and  north,  by  which  Japhet  has  been  immeasurably 


38     INCENTIVES  TO  THE  &TUDY  OF  ANCIENT  AMERICAN  HISTORY. 

enlarged  on  the  continent,  while  the  called  and  not  volun- 
tary sons  of  Ham,  have  endured  a  servitude,  in  the  wide 
stretching  vallies  of  the  tents  of  Shem.* 

Such  are  the  facts  which  lend  their  interest  to  the  early 
epoch  of  our  history.  They  invite  the  deepest  study.  Ev- 
ery season  brings  to  our  notice  some  new  feature,  in  its 
antiquities,  which  acts  as  a  stimulus  to  thought  and  inquiry. 
It  is  evident  that  there  is  more  aliment  for  study  and  scruti- 
ny in  its  obscure  periods,  than  has  heretofore  been  supposed. 
Vestiges  of  art  are  found,  which  speak  of  elder  and  higher 
states  of  civilization,  than  any  known  to  the  nomadic  or 
hunter  states.  And  the  great  activity  which  marks  the 
present  state  of  antiquarian  and  philological  inquiry,  in  the 
leading  nations  of  Europe,  adds  deeply  to  our  means  and 
inducements  to  search  out  the  American  branch  of  the 
subject.  Man,  as  he  views  these  results,  gathers  new  hopes 
of  his  ability  to  trace  the  wandering  footsteps  of  early 
nations  over  the  globe.  There  is  a  hope  of  obtaining  the 
ultimate  principles  of  languages  and  national  affinities. 
Already  science  and  exact  investigation  have  accomplished 
the  most  auspicious  and  valuable  results.  The  spirit  of 
research  has  enabled  us  to  unlock  many  secrets,  which  have 
remained  sealed  up  for  centuries.  History  has  gleaned 
largely  from  the  spirit  of  criticism  ;  Ethnology  has  already 
reared  a  permanent  monument  to  her  own  intellectual 
labors,  and  promises  in  its  results,  to  unravel  the  intricate 
thread  of  ancient  migration,  and  to  untie  the  gordian  knot  of 
nations.  Shall  we  not  follow  in  this  path  ?  Shall  we  not 
emulate  the  labors  of  a  Belzoni,  a  Humboldt,  and  a  Robinson  ? 

«  Genesis,  9.  27. 


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